I caught up with new Idaho State men’s basketball coach Bill Evans over the phone last week as he was on the road — “out in the middle of nowhere” — to talk about his signing of Chris Hansen, the former Fossil Ridge standout.

Hansen, of course, was a 2011 grad who made the All-Colorado team[1] that year before moving on to Northwest College, a junior college in Powell, Wyoming, where he continued to have success as team MVP.

Anyway, the thought around these parts — and of Hansen himself — was that Hansen was a Division I-caliber player. When Hansen signed with Idaho State last month[4], he reached that level. He’ll have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

“First, his character is off the charts, the type of guy he is. He absolutely plays this game for the right reasons. He’s a guy that’s very, very selfless, a guy that wants to win basketball games. That’s his top priority. I know that from having recruited him, and I know that from his junior college coach, and his high school coach. That’s key.”

On Hansen being a contributor next season:

“I have no doubt in my mind he’s going to contribute in a lot of ways: as a scorer, as a leader, as a guy that does all the right things on and off the court. You have to recruit those things, those things don’t just happen. I think he’s a tough kid. He’s going to do everything you ask him to do. You can see why he was a priority in our recruiting.”

On the recruitment:

“He’s a really mature young man, and it took him a while to make the decision. I hope he’s excited (laughs), because I’m excited to have him. I guess it really doesn’t matter if he’s excited about me (laughs). I’m excited about him. He’s going to be wearing black and orange and helping me get this program going. They struggled a little bit last year (going 9-21), and we’re looking forward to the challenge of trying to get that turned around. That’s not a reflection on the previous coaching staff, they did a good job of coaching their team, but we’re just trying to change some things to what we think is better, and Chris is a guy that’s going to help us do that.”

On recruiting other Colorado kids out of high school:

“Absolutely. The proximity of the state, the opportunity that we have to better evaluate guys in that state. One of my coaches, Andy Ward, has recruited Colorado pretty extensively. I think there’s some really, really good basketball played in the state. So, it’s really a natural for us to do that.”